January 30, 2010

The More You Know

I must be getting older. I must be, because time keeps passing and I am not dead yet. (insert British accent)"Not dead yet!" And one thing I am noticing as time goes on, is that the more I learn about any given subject the more I realize that there is a ton of stuff I don't know out there. When you are young and cocky sometimes you take on a know-it-all attitude about things. I experience this almost daily with my teenaged son. He's pretty much an expert in his own mind about most everything out there. It's tiresome.

I remember when I was a teenager and I took French at Provo highschool from Miseur Burnah. I learned fast and the vocabulary came easily. I was feeling pretty spiffy with my new French words. Then when it came to verb conjugation I realized how much harder this was going to be. The more you know- the more you realize how much you have to learn. A little bit of knowledge in one certain area is sometimes a dangerous thing. That is one thing my husband is always saying. Patients see a commercial for a new drug on TV, or watch an episode of 20/20 and come into his office acting like experts.

I used to think that people were often too open minded. If you are open to every idea than you are sure to fall for a lot of bad ideas right? But that was surely the old me who was too shut off and not listening to anything that didn't come out of my own brain. I was constantly using my shut down button. Listen to anything and you'll fall for anything was the way I saw it. I still see some of my family members thinking this way. We all learned it from the same place. Now I feel like my eyes have been opened and I listen before judging too soon. It's not like I compromise my standards. I don't. I just realize that I don't know it all and so the only way to learn more is to listen. I just thought I should share that with you. What? You shut down before reading to the end? Poor you!

4 comments:

I think this is the wisdom that comes with age...although I don't believe everyone is gifted with it, as I've known plenty of closed minded older people. But I do think that if you are willing to learn...teachable...then your mind will be opened. I used to think I had all the answers. I thought it was all pretty black and white. I though my politics were pretty straight forward, too. The older I get, the more people I care about...the more I realize how little I'm really sure about

Kelly

I am a forty something and stay at home mother of 5 children. We are currently living in the DC area. I like to write not only to record the goings on in our household, but to express my thoughts and opinions. I like cooking, sewing reading, exercising, napping and eating good chocolate.

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In case I say something that sounds like a different language it could be because I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a Mormon), and there is a whole 'nuther vocabulary out there for Mormons. Here is a link to help you out with that.